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We all knew Donegal is one of – if not the – most beautiful settings in Ireland, and thanks to an international poll of the most scenic airports in the world, the rest of the world can add the craggy paradise to its travel bucket list.

Donegal Airport, located in the magnificent landscape of Carrickfinn, beat out Nice Airport in France, Toronto Billy Bishop Airport in Canada and more for the accolade, which it also won last year.

Praised for its dramatic and awe-inspiring natural beauty, it’s no wonder Donegal Airport topped the list, as one voter wrote “The view is spectacular! Mountains on one side and a beautiful rugged coastline dotted with islands and golden sandy beaches running adjacent to the runway”.

Another commented, “There is nowhere as lovely as the wild rugged beauty of unspoiled Donegal”.

The poll is conducted with votes from travellers around the world, assessing 129…

“I have lived to see the greatest hour in Irish history.” –Thomas Clarke

As seemed often the case, Clarke’s father was in the British army. At a young age, Clarke took up the nationalist cause, joining the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). In 1883, he was sentenced to penal servitude for life for treason (planning bomb attacks in England.) He served fifteen years.

Following his release in 1898 he moved to Brooklyn, New York where he married Kathleen Daly, 21 years his junior, whose uncle, John Daly, he had met in prison. Clarke worked for the Clan na Gael under John Devoy. In 1906 the couple moved to a 30-acre farm in Manorville, New York and bought another 30 acres in 1907, shortly before returning to Ireland the same year.

The first signatory of the Proclamation of Independence because of his seniority and commitment to the cause of Irish independence, Clarke…

Martin McGuinness, former IRA chief of staff and a key figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, died just two months after stepping down as deputy first minister. The 66-year-old Irish republican died after a short illness in Derry’s Altnagelvin hospital surrounded by his family. He had a rare genetic disease caused by deposits of abnormal protein – amyloid – in tissues and organs.

Gerry Adams, his closest political ally, confirmed that McGuinness died. Adams said: “Throughout his life, Martin showed great determination, dignity and humility and it was no different during his short illness. He was a passionate republican who worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation and for the reunification of his country.” Adams later visited McGuinness’s family in the Bogside area of Derry.

As a tricolour flag flew at half-mast near Free Derry Corner, a landmark denoting a nationalist area of the city, tributes and reactions were swiftly…

The Irish Tricolour flag was first flown publicly by Waterford man and Irish-American Patriot Thomas Francis Meagher in his native city at the Wolf Tone Confederate Club at 33 The Mall, Waterford on 7 March 1848.

On the 15th of April he presented a fabulous version of the Tricolour made from the finest French silk to the citizens of Ireland. He said:

‘I trust that the old country will not refuse this symbol of a new life from one of her youngest children. I need not explain its meaning. The quick and passionate intellect of the generation now springing into arms will catch it at a glance. The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the ‘orange’ and the ‘green’ and I trust that beneath its folds, the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.’ –Thomas Francis Meagher

Even if you’re the kind of person who scorns tasteless green beer, you might enjoy a Guinness for Saint Patrick’s Day. And why not? Unlike shamrock pins and wild partying sure to take place on March 17th, Guinness drinking really is a longstanding tradition in Ireland, as well as the Irish diaspora. But it’s a folk tradition that’s inextricably tied up with almost a century of commercial advertising, according to Brenda Murphy, a gender studies professor at the University of Malta.

If there’s one thing the Irish do well it’s a cosy pub, and why wouldn’t we hold that special talent when we’ve had over a millennium created the perfect pub.

Sean’s Bar in the town of Athlone in Co. Westmeath holds the title of the oldest pub in Ireland, based on the site where a tavern has kept people fed and watered since 900 AD. Not only does its 1,115 years make it the oldest pub in Ireland, but it’s also considered to be the oldest pub in the whole continent of Europe. It even has the certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records to prove it.

In 2014, Seán’s Bar beat off competition from the oldest pub in Britain, the Bingley Arms in Bardsey, North Leeds, which with an opening date of 953 AD just didn’t make the mark.